Leadership development programs are commonplace in organizations but their effectiveness and value are generally not measured in meaningful ways according to the latest research from the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) and ICF International, a global professional services firm.

The study, The Impact of Leadership Development Programs, derived from findings in previous research that found little credible information on how organizations measure the impact of their executive development programs. The intent of this new study was to determine what "best case" organizations do to evaluate leadership development programs (LDPs), including specific techniques used to link leadership development content to organizational metrics. The research revealed 29 evaluation techniques used by leading companies and then tested the transferability of these techniques to other organizations.

Key findings of the research include:

• Organizations exist that have robust LDP evaluation systems, although they are rare.

• Successfully evaluating LDPs requires robust evaluation designs, availability of baseline data, a culture that supports evaluation, and a leadership team that supports continuous improvements.

• The time series design was the most prevalent design that allows for isolation of the programs effect.

• There is general agreement on the most effective techniques, but these are not frequently used. Conversely, techniques considered to be ineffective were most highly used.

The Impact of Leadership Development Programs provides executives and workplace learning and development professionals with much needed insight into what techniques can work for their organizations and the value that can be derived from them. With such insight organizations can make informed decisions on how to tailor leadership development programs to address key organizational needs and desired outcomes and measure the impact of these programs on organizational success.

A free executive summary of The Impact of Leadership Development Programs is available; the full report may be purchased from ASTD by visiting https://www.td.org.